Hi, I’m Carmen Moya and curiosity led me to become a translator and copywriter. As time went by, and with a good dose of persistence, creativity, dynamism and courage, I have specialised in transcreation.

After a number of work experiences related to legal translation and writing up content in the field of society and fashion, a master in International Relations and several periods spent abroad, I moved to London. There I was fortunate enough to work as a copywriter for an IT services company, and I began to collaborate with a selection of international advertising agencies. I soon became infected with the creative spirit of London Town, the cradle of artistic trends and movements.

I finally came back to Malaga, my home town, with the assurance of having enriched myself abroad, both on a personal and professional level. Here I continue doing what I most like, as a way of making a living and as a life style, travelling from one culture to another using no means of transport other than words; with no luggage other than the awareness and knowledge required for reaching my destination, following a well-travelled path.

I transcreate. To do this I have to combine the best of an advertising copywriter, a specialist in marketing and, of course, a pure translator with a linguist’s soul. What motivates me is creativity, and an unceasing interest and inquisitiveness. I work from English, German and Italian into Spanish and I specialise in transcreation and in making cultural and linguistic adaptions of advertising and marketing content. I also manage multilingual IT projects and I create content for various different media as a copywriter.

In a climate of competitiveness and continuous development, in which brands compete to carve themselves a niche on the international market, the need for translation takes on a new dimension, more creative and dynamic, in which not only the linguistic factor comes into play but also the cultural and sociological factors: this is what has been labelled transcreation, or, according to some, the translation of creative, advertising or marketing content.

From a morphological point of view, the word transcreation comes from the English verbs “translate” and “recreate”. What it involves is recreating a text in the broadest sense: we have to transmit the same message, style, visual, emotional, persuasive impact and even the cultural environment surrounding the original content.

Take the transcreation of any advertising campaign: for this to evoke the same sensations and to have the same impact on the reader, the transcreator has to employ both his or her deep knowledge of the original and target languages, and of their cultural contexts and those of the brand, product or idea in question. And of course, he has to have the ability, enthusiasm and empathy with the target audience necessary for the “transcreated” message to be able to fulfil its function, whether this is to encourage people to buy, enhance the brand image, or simply to inform.  And also bearing in mind that the “transcreated” advert or campaign has to attract people’s attention and compete with others that have been created (or conceived) in the local language. Nor should it be forgotten that the people who will be the target of the text have their own idiosyncrasy, their way of thinking and acting. The transcreator therefore has the difficult task of speaking to them in their language, not in the language that they might understand.